Billy Bob Thornton On His Return To Filmmaking: "If You Hold Back, People Aren't Going To Believe You."
You may not have heard from actor Billy Bob Thornton for a while; he featured heavily in the press who documented his marriage to Angelina Jolie at the turn of the millennium but now is scarcely seen or heard of in comparison. "My life is pretty much the way it's always been, except I'm not in a celebrity relationship," Thornton explains in an interview with USA Today, adding "And I feel pretty good about that. I don't miss it."
These Days, Billy Bob Enjoys Life Outside The Media Glare.
What he doesn't miss is the scrutiny and press hounding that accompanied his relationship with Jolie, who is now firmly coupled with Brad Pitt. The pair, who divorced in 2003, didn't exactly help sedate the press by choosing to wear vials of each other's blood around the necks. Now, the Armageddon actor has settled into a life outside the media glare but has managed to maintain his career and raise a family: an enviable accomplishment for an A-list actor who still resides in Los Angeles.
Married Five Times, Billy Bob Has Four Children.
Thornton has a home in L.A's San Fernando Valley where he lives with partner and make-up artist Connie Angland and their 9 year-old daughter. As fellow actor Matt Damon has attested, being partnered with a relative unknown, someone not on the media radar, can be a blessing for privacy. "I still have friends who I feel sorry for because photographers are in the bushes, wondering where they'll go, who's having a baby, s**t like that," Thornton says. "I'm happy now, just having TMZ take my picture at an airport, going to work or coming home from it. Because that's my life."
Thornton had sworn he wouldn't pursue after he was forced to cut an hour's worth of film from the Matt Damon 2000 movie, All The Pretty Horses. However, the 58 year-old has been back in the driving seat, directing Jayne Mansfield's Car, out tomorrow in the USA after touring the film festivals in 2012. He is apparently fond of saying there are three reasons to make a movie: "For fun, for money or because you have something to say."
So does Billy Bob have something to say? It is perceived that Jayne Mansfield's Car is a tribute to his father, William Raymond "Billy Ray" Thornton. The movie's set in 1969 Alabama where families are brought together by a mother's death. Robert Duvall plays a WWI veteran who tries to keep peace in the town with his three WWII veteran sons WWII veteran sons played by Robert Patrick, Kevin Bacon, and Thornton in a story which Billy Bob says mirrors his father's life.
Billy Bob With His Girlfriend, Connie Angland, And Their Daughter Bella.
In the movie, there's one startling scene where Billy Bob's Skip pleasures himself to the sight of his naked stepsister dancing, earning the movie its R rating. Speaking of the scene, as well as other shocking cinema he's been involved in - including his profanity-prone Father Christmas in Bad Santa - Thornton confesses "I've never been that uncomfortable with that kind of thing, If you're going to cuss at kids in Bad Santa, there's no reason to hold back, or people aren't going to believe you."